Those of ordinary skill in the art are familiar with the databases and the management thereof. However, Applicant will provide a brief introduction to specific terminology to provide a full foundation for the background.
According to the online Webopedia, a database is typically considered a collection of information organized in such a way that a computer program module can quickly select desired pieces of data.
To access information from a database, a database management system (DBMS) is used. Typically, a DBMS is a collection of program modules that facilitates storing, modifying, and extracting information from a database.
The most popular database model is the relational database model. Relational databases organize information using fields, records and tables. Unless the context indicates otherwise, references to a DBMS are references to a relational DBMS.
A DBMS is most suited for managing structured data (i.e., where each data item is a structured tuple consisting of a fixed set of fields, each field containing a single value or a set of values). On the other hand, information retrieval systems or search engines like GOOGLE™, VERITY™ etc. are more appropriate for managing text/unstructured data. Such systems can be used for searching individual text databases (e.g., VERITY™, ULTRASEEK™, GLIMPSE™/WEBGLIMPSE™) as well as the internet (e.g., GOOGLE™).
Typically, requests for information from a database are made in the form of a query, which is a stylized question. Different DBMSs support different query languages (which are sets of rules for constructing queries). However, there is a semi-standardized query language called SQL (structured query language).